Barney's Blog

Gartner Guru Retracts Windows 8 Criticism

Gunnar Berger is a research director at Gartner (the company has a lot of research directors, trust me). Berger mentioned in his blog that when Windows 8 runs on a standard machine with a mouse and keyboard, it's "bad."

Berger retracted that statement -- it's unclear whether Microsoft or his employer exerted any pressure in the turnaround.

Here's the thing. According to many of you, the loyal and insightful Redmond Report readers, when run on a standard machine with a mouse and keyboard, Windows 8 is, indeed, bad.

Berger pulled the line from his blog and in a follow-up interview argues that Windows 8 is "actually really good."

What I learned from you, at least those of you beta testing Win 8, is the OS's worth directly relates to the type of machine you use. If you have a touch tablet, it's pretty good, though switching from Metro to the standard desktop interface, which you are forced to do, is (as Mitt might say) disconcerting.

Trying to use it with just a mouse and keyboard isn't just bad, it's terrible, some of you told me.